Edwards was born on May 4, 1958, in Killeen, Texas. When she was only two months old, her parents moved the family back to upstate New York, where Edwards grew up. Although she was interested in writing since she was a little girl, it was in her college years that the wheels were set in motion for her writing career. After transferring from Auburn Community College (now Cayuga Community College) to Colgate University in 1979, she signed up for a fiction workshop. Here, Edwards wrote her first story, "Cords," which eventually became "The Way It Felt to Be Falling." Edwards's instructor told her that she should do research to get her facts right in her fiction. As a result, the author took skydiving lessons at the local airstrip.

After graduating from Colgate University in 1981 with her bachelor's degree, Edwards earned her master of fine arts degree in the writing...